You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!

Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.

Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.

Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Slackware 9.1 contains many updates since 9.0. Also, its 2.6 kernel ready ;). It contains many new products and many updated ones, such as new AbiWord, Yelp for Gnome, newest KDE 3.1.4 and Gnome 2.4. It also contains Glade 2.0 and newest Gaim for slack. 0.68 i believe.....

Once again this is a successful, stable release by Patrick Volkerding. The included truetype fonts make the visual experience much better - KDE, Mozilla, Abiword, etc all use the new fonts.

I use KDE and all of it appeared to function properly after the upgrade.

I did the upgrade from 9.0 to 9.1 using swaret. I had one minor dependency issue that was solved quickly with a query to linuxquestions.org slackware forum. I doubt that a clean 9.1 install would have this issue because this is likely something that I whacked in my original 9.0 install. From what I read on the swaret forum, the lead developer is soon releasing a more efficient dependency resolver that will probably make this a non-issue. BTW, swaret is now included in Slackware.

Everything seems stable...as usual. Damn, I like that.

To the Slackware security team - Good job with publishing those patched OpenSSH packages within a few hours of the notices. That was faster than all of the big boys...

Slackware 9.1 is BY FAR the best Linux distro I've ever installed on my computer. Compared to other distros (i.e. Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, etc.), Slackware is the fastest and most stable. As I stated above, Slackware just works!

I use Slackware as a web server for learning web development, C++ programming, games, surfing the net... well, everything! I wanted the latest and greatest Apache server, MySQL server, and PHP libraries, so I simply uninstalled the defaults, downloaded the new ones, and compiled and everything worked! A little tweaking here and there left me with a wonderful web server that perfectly fits my needs.

Gnome 2.4 is very nice and very fast. With no effort, I had my nVidia driver installed and was playing graphics-intensive games with high framerates. Even ordinary applications run fast!

The packaging system of Slackware is wonderful. Using a utility one can download from the Internet called checkinstall, I was able to install a multitude of programs in .tar.gz format simply by running configure, make, and checkinstall. Checkinstall installs the app in the Slackware package format (.tgz) and makes it easy to uninstall it if needed. No more picking through directories to remove program files!

Slackware 9.1 like all Slackware releases goes by strict standards to keep the distribution like it has been for 10 years. People like Slackware because it doesn't make big changes that could change the way the system performs and/or instability. I have found 9.1 to be a lot like previous versions in the sense of freedom that goes along with the way you can customize your system to your liking with ease. A few things that I do to insure proper system performance are: Not installing the hotplug system, Not installing nautilus, and Not installing any services that I won't be using.

First of all, the reason I do not install hotplug is because I really don't see any need for it. When I first installed 9.0 (1 week after the release), I installed hotplug only to have random kernel panics (not often, probably once every 3 weeks) during various time periods, mostly when the system was idle during an xlockmore session. I did a little tweaking and realized that hotplug was causing my problems. I subsquently removed this from my system and all was well.

Nautilus is another pet peve of mine. I am use to the CLI so I had no real need for a file manager, not too mention a hidieously bloated one. I tried nautilus once and like the hotplug experience, realized right away that this wasn't what I wanted my system to use, so I just compiled aterm and used the command line. A few hours later, I switched to fluxbox from gnome indefinitely. I do find Gnome 2.4 which is included with 9.1 to be far greater than older versions of gnome. I left nautilus out, and had a reasonably fast system with 2.4. I still decided that fluxbox was more of my style.

Of course any services like bind, apache, etc. that are not needed I don't isntall. In fact, most things that I know I won't use I dont intall. Such as line printer, USB utilities, and such. I don't currently have a use for such things, so why would they need to be there?

One thing I like about Slackware that really stands out is the way security vunlerabilites are fixed. Patrick puts a patch out and then just a simple upgradepkg will upgrade the vulnerable packages.

All in all its a great system if you want to get your feet wet in what linux should really be like.

A minimal install is possible. Easy to configure/control by hand; a distro that doesn't sit in your way.

Cons:

No FTP install, could use a newbie (security) setup.

I love slackware. It's my first distribution, after having some UNIX experience at school.

configuration
Slackware offers the user a lot of freedom. The /etc/ structure is not hard to understand, and boot process for example, uses scripts in /etc/rc.d/. You can alter these scripts manually to disable services; it's not hard to understand what your system is doing at startup. But this is obviously a reason why newbies might be confused about Slackware. There are no tools for you to solve this (except for "netconfig", and "xwmconfig")

package management
Another thing is the package system. You won't notice any dependency checks; this allows you to install an alternative package, or a source install yourself. The swaret tool (SlackWARE Tool; for system upgrades) however, has a dependency check, which is pretty neat. It uses "ldd" to find the missing libraries, and looks for them in some package/master-list. This kind of check doesn't interfere with installations from source. ;)

strip-down
Recently, I've installed Slackware as server system. I've skipped a lot of packages, like GUI things, but installed all development tools because I wasn't sure about skipping them. After examining the system, it seamed that I've only used 400MB of disk space! It could have been less if I knew what packages I really needed.

9.1 specific
Swaret upgraded my slackware 9.0 system to 9.1, and it worked pretty well. My fonts look awsome; like I have never seen before at any computer system. The upgrade did have some drawbacks. My /dev/ folder was replaced, and I'd lost the permissions I've set at some devices. My /etc/ files weren't replaced, but a "<name>.new" file was placed there instead. I've used "vimdiff" to merge these two files.

The boot scripts needed to be merged too, and new rc.inet1 file looks much better now. The configuration for your networks has been moved to rc.inet1.conf, so the changed in rc.inet1 won't be lost anymore if you run "netconfig". This tool however, also overwrites your hosts and resolv.conf files.

technie stuff
I've read an interesting post at slashdot recently; about the package compilation. To install linux-from-scrath, it seams you need to modify some sources and apply some patches to make it actually not suck. The team of Slackware also did this, but instead of supplying the modified source, they give you the original source plus a diff-file with the modifications, and a build-script! wow. You can do the whole thing over again if you want to change something more

cons
I have some cons of linux-newbies though. Slackware just leaves you with a console, as root. I think it should have some newbie-introduction; telling them to create a user account for themselves, and disable some network services (a lot is enabled by default), run swaret to upgrade, and run "startx" to get a GUI.

Since this is Slackware, without fancy installation screens, it might be an idea to leave a "readme.txt" in the /root/ directory.

The lack of an FTP install also gave me some problems recently. I'm still trying to find out how to run the setup from an NFS partition, on a laptop with 500mb of disk space, and no cd-rom drive!

The installation menu could be made more descriptive. It seams that it's "all at once", or "one by one". I'd love to see a menu where I could select all packages, also read all descriptions, before I would start the actual install.

Slackware was my first distro, because my friend, who got me into trying linux in the first place, used it, and I've never wanted to change. Though I like to try something different from time to time. 9.1 is the first distro I ever paid for, but I guess it was time to give something back.

I am from Norway, but studying in the US, so I only brought a laptop with me, a Dell Inspiron 5150, and that's where I installed 9.1. What actually surprised me after the install, was that everything worked right out of the box. Hardly any configuration needed, except for what you always have to do in an installation. Ok, so the modem didn't work, but I don't use it and it is not supported in linux, not a Slackware issue. The reason this surprised me was that it's a brand new laptop and I expected some things to not be supported from a default setup, but it was. So the installation went without any troubles whatsoever.

I have to confess I like my desktop to have a little eye-candy factor. So I didn't install the GNOME from the Slackware cd's, but instead downloaded and installed Dropline Gnome, which has a little extra candy compared to the stock slackware version, it's more optimized and frequently updated. So now I have a GUI that doesn't hold back to anyone and my system is really fast, stable, reliable and more and more the way I want it. Funny thing is, I never seem to go out of stuff to customize, so it's never _exactly_ the way I want it :D

One thing I love about slackware is that it doesn't prevent you from making things work. It's like, if something runs on linux, it runs on slackware. So if I find something I would like to use, I can alway get it to work.

Also, like so many have said, you learn by using slackware. That is, you don't have to know to install and use it, but after a while you will know it anyway, it just is that way. And it just makes it so much better.

This wasn't much of a review, more an overall experience. But I have to conclude that Slackware is still the best distro I have used.

I've never had any dependency problems with slackware packages. Swaret helps you keep your system up to date. I upgraded from 9.0 to 9.1 using swaret. The only problem I had was with two packages (not official slackware packages) that were compiled against an older version of glibc. I recompiled these packages myself and it solved my problems.

Slackware's configuration is easy to figure out. Just read comments on the files in /etc and you can figure out how to modify your settings.

I recommend slackware for people who want a good amount of control over their system. If you are a total newbie then you might want to try something else out first.

Slackware doesn't need review. The one and the only thing that should be fixed with slackware is package management. Swaret looks good. Since I doesn't have any broadband connection at home, I can't do all such massive updates. So it doesn't account for me. tgz files needs someway to check for dependencies. If 95% of dependency problems would be solved when 'ldd' is used, why Slackware's tgz package format doesn't yet support even this kind of dependency check ('ldd').

well, slackware is my first linux distribution (first one ive really gotten into anyway) and its proved amazing! everything about it is fantastic, can be slightly daunting at times but it forces u to learn the ins and outs more than the other distro's ive tested..Slack puts u at a command line straight away, no login managers here! then lets u play to ur hearts content with the command line. Last time i installed it i had the whole package instaled, tho this time round ive gone for no X at all and using the command line for everything...for some reason i fee liberated?! (thought it would be the other way around lol). Great fun getting to know the operating system at this level though..and ive only just started!

keep up the good work! (and im going to buy it soon! i feel like i owe the money, ive already boughtthe book and thats pretty good, helped me along quite a lot)

I've been running Linux for a while now, and I can honestly say that Slackware 9.1 is the best distro that I've used. I'm not an impatient Linux user -- I do my research and pick a distro that I think I'll want to stay with. I've used a few, but most recently I had used SuSE 7.1 Professional (and upgraded that to 8.0 Professional later on).

SuSE was a decent distro. Things worked well, for the most part. If things didn't work I was usually able to find something in the documentation (a printed manual, too) that would correct the problem. I had been running 7.1 since about Spring(?) 2000 with only the 1 major upgrade to 8.2.

Why the change to Slack then? Well, to be honest, I didn't feel 'in control' of my system any more. Sure, I could edit config files, compile a custom kernel or change things around -- but I felt more and more like SuSE was running my computer, and not me. So, I switched.

Here are some highlights:
1) I was surprised by the ease of install.

I prepared for a few days before starting the installation process; I was afraid that my geekin' skills would be a bit rusty. When the time for preparation was over, I said 'Bye Bye' to SuSE and started the process...
...and, about an hour later, I was done. Totally done. No, really -- all I had to do was grab the nvidia driver and configure the X server. That's it!

I wasn't expecting ANY auto configuration, but I got a working system, ready and waiting.

2) The filesystem is so clean. Less fluff and less bloat.

The relatively "hands-off" (or, "GUI's-on, CLI's-off") approach to system management that I had been getting used to with SuSE came at a price: A _very_ cluttered filesystem. When I did have to make adjustments by hand, I would often have to search through the rather large /etc directory, update the necessary files, then check to make sure that the file I updated is the one that is read by default. So much work for such little changes.

In Slackware 9.1, all the configuration files are well documented, I know what each one does, I know how to start/stop them and how to add/remove/change functionality with them. Talk about control.

3) Great assortment of packages on the install disks.

Some distros come with like 2000+ packages on the CD's (or DVD's now). I have always had a dial-up connection, so I thought this would be a good feature. What really happens, however, is that all these packages get installed, seldom used (if at all), and finally removed from the system.

Slack has 4 CD's total, but 2 are source code, zipslack and the slackware manual. So far, I haven't had to download much software. Most everything I actually used on my previous distro are all right here -- just none of the things that I didn't use!

There are some things that one should be aware of before switching to Slackware 9.1:
1) Kernel 2.6.0-test11...

When I learned about the kernel exploit in 2.4.22, I decided to skip the 2.4.23 patch approach and give the 2.6 tree a try. Slackware 9.1 /is/ 2.6.0 ready; but all this means is that the necessary software packages to compile and run a 2.6 kernel are installed. See the /usr/src/linux-2.6.0-test11/Documentation/Changes file for more information on what I mean. Getting the test kernel series working is still not a "drop-in" solution (until Slackware produces some pre-built 2.6 kernels anyway...).

That was my path. I was prepared to compile, debug and recompile as many times as was necessary to get the job done. To tell you the truth, I used the 2.2.xx kernel series until the update to SuSE 8.0 Professional (I think I went from a patched 2.2.16 or .18 to a 2.4.18 in 1 day...). IMO, it isn't necessary to use the 2.6 series yet. I have nothing to lose, so I wanted to go for it.

If you are interested in running a test kernel, but are unwilling to build one yourself (and go through the post-compile tweaking processes), you may want to stick to another distro that offers pre-built test kernels (or stick with a stable kernel release...).

2) Command Line Interface...

It /should/ be said that Slackware doesn't have many GUI configuration tools. If you are CLI-phobic, you may not enjoy Slack as much. I have a UNIX background, so I'm not afraid to jump right in and type! SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat all seem to have some nice GUI tools to get things done, if that is the sort of thing you are in to.

Slackware 9.1 may not be for everyone. If you are serious about running and _learning_ Linux then Slackware, Debian, Gentoo and LFS are all good choices. If you only have a passing interest in running Linux, perhaps you may want to grab a distro that is more suited to that (Mandrake, SuSE, etc...).

Gives you just about as much control over things as you want; very stable, you have to tell it to start up X server and if that crashes or if you have to log out you don't have to shutdown and restart the entire machine. You really learn what's going on inside that humming beige case in regards software.

I have tried all the other base distro's like Deb, RH, SuSE, and must say they do not compare. I love to try out new software and many other programs and when a distro starts "hacking" the source to fit thier products you have to rely on them. Slack is standardized enought to where you do not have to worry about it. Second the 4CD set I have comes with everything, even a Live CD just incase. Combine this with a script called swaret and you have no problem staying up-to-date.
What also made me decide to stay with slack is the fact that the documentation is in /usr/doc . Not much to ask for but that is where it should be, then realizing that everything else is, where it should be; made it very easy to "hack" the system the way I want. I love Slack and have no problem giving $25 for each release.

Even though I am a noob with only but a few weeks under my belt, I prefer slackware above all else. I was warned repeatedly I would have to read a lot, so I was ready for it. I've played around with RedHat a lot too, and I definitely prefer slackware.

Downloading:
I was able to download the two slackware .iso images in an afternoon unlike many Linux distrobutions that require up to seven or eight .iso images. If your coming from a .rpm distrobution this will be a pleasent suprise. If you've never downloaded linux cd images before this means that you wont be discouraged just because you have a dial-up connection. In that case you might just want to get slackware 9.0 considering its one snazzy little cd.

Installation:
This is the first reason I love slackware so much. If you are familiar with using fdisk in windows, then cfdisk should be a piece of cake. After setting up partitions and devices, the installation took only about 20 minutes. After that its all down to doing a reboot and adding another user besides root.

Performance:
Out of the box Slackware is pretty slick. During the last installation I did I tried running Slackware with KDE 3.1 just to see how much speed I would loose. Though it was noticable, I was still able to do everything with impressive results. Being the Fluxbox junkie I am, I still changed back soon enough.
Users of .rpm distro's might get discouraged to find the lack of configuration "wizards" for security, package updating and things of that nature. That should be the defining moment for any Linux user to realize the wealth of documentation on your slackware system as well as what is available online. It may be slow going at first, trying to climb that learning curve, but in the end it all pays off.
Other than that Im sure everything will be reviewed as a pro once the user gets comfortable with how the system works.

Customizable, really puts you in control, *much* easier to install than Debian

Cons:

Not newb-friendly, little or no cd-rw support

Slackware is definitely great, but you'd better know what you're doing before you try to use it! Installing it is easy compared to using it, actually; as the reviewers above mentioned, it logs you into a console, and you have to use "startx" to get a GUI. Furthermore, a regular user account isn't created during the installation like many distros.

Also, I must add that better support for these modern on-board soundchips would be helpful too.

I just have one real complaint: I've tried Slack on two different computers now, both with different cd-rws, one that's two years old, and Slack can't or won't configure either of them. What's weird about it is that it was from the cd-rw that I was installing it! Then after the install, the cd-rw just disappears as far as Slack is concerned. I've googled and searched and never found a solution to this. The Slackware site isn't helpful at all either; it's answer to this issue is that your cd-rw isn't supported in the curent Linux kernel. Now, I know that's not the case; Slack and the Slack-based distros are the only ones that has ever given me this problem.

So, if your cd-rw is supported, and you like it's complicated nature that makes *you* actually run the OS, then Slackware may be just right. If you don't know how to run very much from the command line, or just think that's a pain, then you probably won't like Slack.

<Edit> A friend saw my review here and told me to check my iso of Slackware to see if the scsi module was in there. It wasn't; the person I bought them from didn't include that when they compiled the iso. So my advice is, check the iso to see that what you need is included! </Edit>

Like many others have said in earlier posts, Slackware makes you learn! I was given an 8.0 bootable disc from a friend and have been hooked since. I have tried one other distro (Yellow Dog) on my iBook, and the install is much easier compared to Slack, plus it is all graphical. However too many holes left open by YDL.

installation of the system was flawless. Much to it's credit, i expected errors similar to other distro's i have tried, yet had none, which for an inexperienced user was a relief!
A few minor issues (lack of experience questions, lilo & users), which have now been resolved, would of been resolved a lot sooner if there was some system wide documentation (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141614) included in the distro - ii now have this however, and will use it continuously!

Overall - the system seems extremely stable, things are very easy to change and fix, it's rather easy to get into the system without lilo (and rather easy to stuff up lilo!), setting up user accounts is much simpler at the command line than it has been with some GUI's i have used, and the method of using no packages - saves time from visiting dependency hell, unlike using RPM's!

well slack has always been a great distro, and would recommend it for anyone ..
even if people say new comers will have a hard time i would still recommend, cause it really isn't hard to setup and if they do in fact have a problem the know where to come ;-)

i like how flux was added to the window managers :p
one less thing for me to install ...
/me is lazy sometimes .

Very very nice, and definitely reccomended. I've been using slackware since a little after 3 came out and I've loved every minute of it. I'll never go do another distro thats for sure. Slackware has a nice slim install of everything that I need and is very stable. I run it on all of my machines.

I just started playing with Slackware Sunday night, I love it. It looks great, I have tried many of the different Desktop Enviroments and Window Managers, and I am having a great time with slack.

Slack to me is a change from FC1, and the Red Hat world, I thought for once I would get something else going. It was in slack that I learned how to compile apps from the source, and to untar files, thing I did not do in the Red Hat world (thanks to the RPM manger, OR NOT)

Boot-up time in Slack seems to be fast then then FC1, which is a lot of speed, since FC1 was not slow.. Also its Stable (like all linux distros)

I would recommend slackware only to people who have been using linux for awhile, and that know some of the terminal commands, because like it was pointed out there is the need to startx, and there is also the need to know how to untar and install from tar files..

Then again I would have loved to start with slackware, since its a true breed of Linux, something you don't see all of the time..

The above is a review that I am posting about the Slackware Linux distrobution. After spending much time with various distrobutions such as RedHat, Mandrake, Peanut, Slackware, an older Suse and a couple others, I must say that Slackware is by far my choice Linux. While I also have high respect for the BSD's and Unix itself, I tend to enjoy and respect Slackware Linux more each day and have not found any other that would take the place of Slackware. This distrobution may not be as glamorous as others, but it will rival any distrobution and has flexability beyond words.

Some may say that Linux is Linux. To a point I do agree when discussing the Kernel itself. But I might suggest to you to try Slackware on your laptops, desktops and web servers. I believe that you will find Slackware to be better in most respects than it's counterparts.

For the BSD's I really enjoy FreeBSD. For Linux I feel you will never go wrong choosing Slackware Linux.

The first time I install this product, I am impressed with the simpleness of instalation. If you have ever install Linux before, the instalation is not difficult though not easy at all. I hate partitioning based text so I have to abort the instalation and load my Knoppix based cd to partition my harddrive. My Knoppix based cd has Qtparted which is easy to use. I dissapointed that Slackware use Lilo not Grub. But I can install Grub after instalation. After install, I have to run xf86config, adduser, and alsaconfig. I knew this because I have read the tutorial. But if you install Linux distro like Fedora and Mandrake, you don't have to read the tutorial. So the instalation of Slackware is not intuitive although you can read the help. Now, after instalation, I give credit that if you install all the package, you got flash plugin already and java sdk. But I hate to say this. The softwares that you got from Slackware CD is not enough. There is no Evolution and Gnucash. Installing Evolution from the packages from third party is easy but I prefer is the Evolution comes from the official CD. Now, here's comes the fun part. Installing Gnucash is a nightmare. I spend hours to figure out how to install Gnucash. And there is no OpenOffice too. How come is it not shipped with the Slackware CD? I think a lot of people use OpenOffice for office needs. Ok, let's go to the system administration part. Slackware has no GUI program to administer your system. Ok, there is. But few. So you have to edit the files and files to administer your system. But the scripts had been put so that you can configure it easyly. Besides that, I can say that as default Slackware load faster than Redhat like distro. But I tweak it!!!! AND IT LOAD FASTER!!!! Bravo................

really not that hard to install if you use a guide, bunch of software included, very stable

Cons:

"nv" driver was choppy with 3d, had to install "nvidia", mysqld required further tweaking to make it start up

I rated Slackware 9.1 a 10 simply due to the fact that out of all the distributions I have used (Red hat 6, SuSe, Mandrake), slackware has worked with all of my stuff. In mandrake I had trouble with my network card and onboard video chip. Red Hat.. dial up modem and onboard video chip. Slackware.. all hardware detected.

I did have to download the nvidia driver from Nvidia's website to fix the choppy 3d problem, but after that, it was down hill. Sound worked with the simple "alsaconfig" command.

Slackware also pulled through when i used it as a webserver. When I finished the full install of it, I chose mysqld, sendmail, and apache to start up when my computer started. Everything worked except mysql, which I fixed with some command to create some needed directories (forgot the command but i found it with a LQ search). All of the programs that I needed for the webserver worked perfectly with each other.

Also, once I purchased cable internet, again Slackware came to the rescue. I all did was "netconfig", named my computer something, and then chose to connect with DHCP. After that, DHCP automatically grabbed an ip for me during the boot up and I was on the internet with slackware!

Pretty much the only terrible experience I had with slackware was the box locked up once when my friend DoSed me. Completely frozen. So i had to power cycle in the middle of hard drive activity. It corrupted my linux partition and I had to reinstall. But other than that, no major problems with slackware.

Also, dont type in ls -w 1073741828, especially as a root user. It makes the computer really choppy. I hadt ctrl + z it. Maybe that is something the slackware team should fix for the next version.

So for internet, 3d (gaming), stability, sound, chose slackware.

And two more reasons why I prefer slackware:
1. I have the right to call myself a "slacker"
2. Slackware raises my self esteem by tricking my brain into thinking im a linux expert because i use slackware and I have to be a genious to go through the setup process.

Why do people think the setup process is so hard? I will never know. Maybe because people are used to the GUI setups. Oh well, if you know what your swap partition is, and you know what your main linux parition is, the setup is really easy.

The distro is amazing. The first time i had tried it was a little hard because i didn't understand the concept of fdisking, once i got past that, i was amazed at how simple the design was and much easier it was to use compared to other distros. I love it and will continue to use it.

I currently run Slackware 9.1 on my multimedia oriented laptop and my headless router. I have found Slackware to offer me plenty of satisfaction in both cases; my router has a very small installation, where as my laptop has a LOT of multimedia content, GUI software, etc.

There are several configuration scripts which allow you to easily setup network, keyboard layout and other essential features. Installation is pretty straight forward. I've found that using `cfdisk` a lot easier than using fdisk when setting up the hard disk.

If you want to learn linux while using it, rather than clicking through graphical menus and wizards, Slackware would definately be one of the good choices.

After one and a half years of running Mandrake, I felt that I wanted a distro that wasn't as...constrained. I wanted to be able to install any package without worrying about dependencies and I also wanted to be able to compile and use the latest kernel without having to think twice. Don't get me wrong, I was very satisfied with Mandrake, but I wanted more control. So I decided to try out Slackware. I've now been a very Happy Slacker for two and a half months, and I must say I feel somehow liberated.

I have installed it on three not so similar computers without any quirks. The boxes are nothing strange; here they are, with the graphics and sound cards specified:

The installations on the Dell boxes were pure CD installations, whereas on the old box I had to ftp the whole distro down to my second harddrive and do the installation from there after boot-up from the boot and root floppys. What I lost in time downloading the whole distro a second time was gained in the satisfaction of the speed with which the packages were installed.

In the beginning of the installation, Slack lets you partition your harddrive with fdisk, which maybe is a bit intimidating for someone who is not familiar with it, such as me. So I did as I usually do, I used Partition Magic to create the partitions, and then let Slack re-format them to ext3 and ReiserFS during the system setup process.

After the installation, where I choose the "Full" installation, I find myself in a fully functioning system. I must say I was amazed of the startup speed the first time I booted a Slack system. You should remember to set a root password and add a user for yourself. I've gotten the habit of downloading swaret, the SlackWARE Tool, adding some Slackware-current mirrors, and upgrading all the packages directly after first boot. Swaret is a very nice tool, and I really don't want to live without it.

Since Slack defaults to VESA, I have fiddled a bit with /etc/XF86Config. I have downloaded drivers for my graphics cards from nVidia and ATI and had no problems installing these. I have then used my old config files from Mandrake as templates, so it hasn't been an issue to set up the graphics properly. Activating the mouse wheel is also done in XF86Config, so I do this as well.

After familiarizing myself with the /etc/rc.d script structure, and (finally!) finding root's crontab in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root and not in /etc/crontab where I was used to find it from Mandrake, I feel completely at ease with this system. The transition from a GUI-focussed system such as Mandrake to a completely CLI-focussed system has been remarkably smooth. Maybe Slack isn't newbie-friendly, but from what I've read in posts here at LQ, it seems that the number of post saying this are about equal to posts from happy newbies saying they love Slack. Linux was definitely not new to me when I started using Slack, so I can't say how difficult it would've been if I had no eperience before. In any case one should definitely not be afraid of the command line, but the extensive CLI usage gives a very nice hands-on experience and is in my opinion only to Slack's advantage.

This really is the simplest and least frustrating distro. It just seems to work the way Linux is supposed to work. Because there are not automatic gui management of your system, nothing gets broken unless you break it yourself. It is as stable as Debian woody (IME). But the software is reasonably up to date.

The biggest mistake people make that have problems with Slackware is installing it and expecting not to have to learn how their system and Linux work. As stated before, there is no genie in the bottle that is going to do everything for you. But to me that is good. There isn't that overhead that your system has that will slow it a bit and also decrease stability.

Simple BSD init style; Easy to swap WM/DE and many provided standard; Two disk download - second disk acts as a "live" disk (not the best though)

Cons:

Needs a fair bit of tweaking to get it the way you want it

I've dabbled with perhaps eight distros and frankly I'm a slackaholic. Patrick has a few nifty tools in there but they are just about all command line. It's a command line style distro really that is comfortable with a GUI, but there aren't many GUI front end tools that are distro specific (if any). The install is simple and again it's a text based install done from console, but it's direct.

No lack of choice for window managers, coming with nine provided. The second disk of this distro has kde and gnome on it, slack now spilling out from a single disk; but this second disk is put to further task by acting as a "live" slack distribution, although it has been overshadowed by morphix/knoppix based live distros, and rightly so.

Slack is a simple distro and is lacking a lot of apps that other distros throw in, and does hold onto a lot of legacy apps too. Not that this is a bad thing always, but not everyone's cup of tea. Be prepared to download and compile from source because that's the way you'll end up getting most of your extras.

The package manager is based around "tgz" files but there just aren't that many tgz's going around. You can use rpm's and even convert rpm's to tgz quite easily, but I end up trusting the source more often than not.

You'll be bound to have a few adventures/nightmares getting things the way you want them (ie. working) but you'll get there and you'll be that much better for the experience in terms of knowledge.

It's also very rich in unheralded apps. A few nights digging around can bring up pure gold; apps sitting quietly in the depths of the tree which can only be kicked off from the command line lurk in numbers and they can surprise.

Slack can spawn zealots though, and behind slack is the "Cult of the Sub-Genius" figureheaded by Dr. Bob Dobbs. I've never seen him without his pipe and he could well be smoking a little bit more than plain tobacco. Some of the zealots certainly are.